It is thought that Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) is among firms bidding for Yates Petroleum, one of the biggest closely held oil companies in the United States, having oil fields in the Permian Basin of New Mexico and elsewhere. Such a deal could bring as much as $3 billion. Yates wants to sell itself before the end of the year so as to avoid higher taxes on transactions anticipated in 2013.

Siemens (NYSE:SI) acquires the Belgian industry software maker LMS International at a price of €680 million and the firm will also divest water businesses with revenues of €1 billion a year.

Aviva (NYSE:AV) confirms that it is in discussions to divest its domestic life and annuities division, but observers believe that any such transaction will come at a “substantial discount” to its book value of £2.4 billion.

Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) will acquire Bakken producing and undeveloped assets for $650 million and will also sell its producing crude oil and natural gas properties and supporting assets located in its East Region for $125 million. The Bakken property includes a leasehold of about 12,000 net acres and production of approximately 6,500 barrels of energy equivalent per day.